


memento nāscēns

by excentricAnthropologist



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Abstract, Gen, Memories, Siblings, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 19:05:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12115227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/excentricAnthropologist/pseuds/excentricAnthropologist
Summary: Lup’s earliest memories are few.There was darkness.There was warmth.And there was him.And that was all there was, for awhile.





	memento nāscēns

Lup’s earliest memories are few.

There was darkness.

There was warmth.

And there was him.

And that was all there was, for awhile.

Just the two of them, floating in that warm darkness, grasping at each other blindly and breathing in the liquid that enveloped them.

Until the darkness began to press down around them, overwhelming Lup with pressure that forced her down and away.

And then there was light.

And there was cold.

And he was gone.

She remembers screaming, crying out against the harsh, empty light. Voices filled her ears as cold hands passed her around, wrapping her in a blanket and setting her down somewhere. The touch of cloth against her skin and the pull of gravity on her body were alien to her, and she wailed at the overwhelming newness of it all.

She lay there, hands poking and prodding at her, and she cried for him. Where _was_ he? Was he alone, back in that floating darkness, reaching out for her and finding nothing?

Time passed, and Lup continued to howl as the voices around her grew worried. Lup could not yet understand what they were saying, but they were clearly distressed about something. They droned on as the minutes crept by, and soon exhaustion began to sink into Lup’s bones. But still she wept, even as the voices grew near-frantic in their cadence and someone began screaming even louder than Lup.

And then she heard him.

Despite never having heard his voice before, Lup recognized his wail as easy as anything. She called out to him, tried to let him know that she was _here_ , that she was okay, but the figures ushered him away, and there was silence. Her heart ached with loneliness and the need to know that he was all right, and she screamed and screamed even as she was lifted and placed in a pair of warm arms.

A voice above her spoke to her in comforting whispers as hands smoothed over her head, but no, Lup was not going to be placated, not until she knew where he was. The voice grew concerned as Lup carried on crying, and the other voices joined in, baffled and wondering.

And then Lup felt a familiar weight being placed into the arms that held her, and she knew that it was him. His slow breathing told Lup that he slept, exhausted after the toil of birth, and Lup finally allowed her own weariness to overtake her, content to know that he would be there when she woke.

 

Years later, when the touch of cloth against Lup’s skin and the pull of gravity on her body no longer cause her pain, people tell her how sweet it was that when she was born she wouldn’t stop crying until she was reunited with her brother. Lup only responds to these comments with a smile and a nod. She knows they mean well, but her memory is good, even for an elf, and she remembers what it felt like to be ripped away from the cradling darkness, away from _Taako_ , like her heart was being torn from her chest.

When Lup asks Taako what he remembers of their birth he tells her that he only remembers pain and fear. Pressure all around him, foreign instruments pulling at him, confusion at where Lup had gone. Blinding light, and a bone-deep fatigue that overtook him only minutes after his delivery. Relief, he tells her with a smile, when he woke to find her lying next to him. The knowledge that everything was going to be all right, because they were still together. Lup smiles back and takes his hand as they make their way toward yet another relative’s home. Lup knows that in a matter of years, maybe months, or even weeks, they will be on the road once more, floating aimlessly as they once had in their mother’s womb. But she knows that they will survive; they always do. Even when the adversity become too much to bear, even when the entire world seems to turn its back on them, they survive, because they have each other.

Lup squeezes her brother’s hand, and together they walk into the unknown.

**Author's Note:**

> I noticed that most twins in fiction are mentioned as being born minutes apart. However, my own twin and I were born an hour and forty-five minutes apart due to birth complications. Since Lup and Taako are my new favorite fictional twins, I decided to give them a similar birth story. As for how they are able to remember their own births, just assume that elves have magically good memories or something. ;)
> 
> The title is a rather ham-fisted play on "memento mori". I _believe_ "memento nāscēns" translates to "remember being born", but I only did a smidge of research on wiktionary, so I'm sorry if I was way off.


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